An RPG developed by Monolith Soft, for Wii and New Nintendo 3DS. Two great civilizations that live on the vast bodies of slain deities have been at war for aeons, and now with the development of a dangerous superweapon, things are finally coming to a head.

@Hizang: Most like Star Ocean out of them. Your standard attacks happen automatically and you choose special attacks and buffs. There's a good system where your party can draw agro to open the enemy up for back stabs and the like. More like Dragon Age than anything else I've played to be honest.I'm very early on and I've been drawn in to loads of side quests and just enjoying the combat.

It's a really good game, i put about 10 hours in. It does have a alot of MMO influence especially interface, questing, then combat has aggro management, skillchains, positional attacks, something similar to an mmo combat system (i guess you can say FF12 was like that too). But on top of that, it has a really good single player story. There's also a relationship type of system where you can build influence on townsfolk and your party members, not so much romance but reputation system that will unlock more quests and special items.

@dagas: If your anything like me, not at all. I hated FF12 and think this is bloody great.

My only problem with it is that some of the plot points are a bit obvious. One in particular comes to mind, I potentially figured it out within the first 3 hours. I'm 20 hours in and they appear to be slowly building towards what I thought, I would like to be wrong.

I've not played nor will I play it cause I don't own a Wii, but a friend of mine who does is having a blast with it. But I'd definitely watch those videos that DeF posted above before making any decisions.

I pretty much got this on a whim, being a fan of the genre, and can say wholeheartedly that this is looking like being one of the best games I own on the wii. Strong voice acting some great music and a very interesting and explorable open world. It's well good. Should you buy it? I guess if you've enjoyed other JRPGs or are just looking for a very strong hardcore game on the Wii then you definitely should, otherwise have a read of the reviews online (edge magazine's convinced me).

My favorite achievements are the gem crafting ones, simply because I got carried away with the game and did not actually craft any gems for about the first 25 hours. I ended up spending like an hour crafting and got (I think) every single gem related achievement at once which caused everyone in my party to level up.

Actually, there are achievements in this game for just about everything.

I got that achievement, pretty awesome!

I loved how they rewarded my clumsiness/curiosity with that one :P

"Hmmmm ... Can I survive that faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa----"

"No, I can't."

I got it by walking off a cliff at the edge of the map. There was no ground below me. Just an endless abyss. And then, ding!

Awesome.

I think I got it on the Bionis' Leg on the cliffside where that high level dragon thing has its nest. There was some ether to mine but it was hard to reach (balancing and careful walking required) ... I think Reyn pushed me off though but he won't admit it :D

@Hizang: Depends on your play style for both. If you want to have any sort of challenge through the game then avoid doing too many side quests as you will quickly over level otherwise. If you want to be over powered then go for it. That said the main story on its own is around 50 hours and there are so many sidequests along the way that it's very easy to burn out on the game if you try to do them all, since the variety rarely changes (most major areas are composed of killing sidequests, item collection, and killing every unique mob in the area).

My general advice is if you're going to do sidequests stick to the ones from named NPCs since those are usually better made and change affinity of characters in the area. As for killing every monster that is an equally fast way to burn out/over level.

It really comes down to knowing your limits is all. If you are alright with mundane quests and being over leveled and find the sidequests fun then keep doing them. If not don't worry about it. Every sidequest that does not have a clock icon beside it can be done at nearly any point in the game. Those with clock icons go away eventually for various reasons, but most of them are not gone until near the end of the game.

If you enjoy good JRPGs I think Xenoblade is a must. It does take a while to really get going, but when it does, I at least had a hard time putting the game down. One of my top games of last year for sure.